assad is hanging on. minister, what is your assessment now of the military necessity to strike iran's nuclear program? what reason do you have, if any, to believe sanctions are working, as mr. panetta said, if even now iran is able to send rockets into gaza? >> with regard to syria, let me say that it is critical that we have not provided any of those kinds of missiles to the opposition forces located in syria. our focus has been -- we do provide assistance. it is not lethal assistance. we are obviously continuing to work and humanitarian relief to the refugees that have been impacted. and we continue with the assistance of israel and other countries in the region, continue to try to monitor closely what is happening with the cbw sites in that area. but our main focus right now has been to work with other countries and try to provide whatever assistance we can to the opposition so that ultimately it can become not only an effective force but ultimately can come together to provide the kind of political tr